Wellmark wants to offer further plan extension

Friday, March 7, 2014 12:09 PM

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield said Thursday that it would like to offer an additional two-year extension to customers who have insurance policies that predate Affordable Care Act rules, The Des Moines Register reported. The Obama administration said Wednesday it will let people with health insurance plans that don't comply with Affordable Care Act standards keep them through as late as 2017 if their states allow it, CNBC reported. Wellmark has already offered a one-year extension option to its individual and small-group policyholders through this year, an offer that was accepted by 85 percent of its small-group policyholders. Under the new rule, people who maintain their plans, and who renew them as late as Oct. 1, 2016, will be able to keep them until as late as 2017. The administration Wednesday emphasized that the extension now includes people in the small-group market, whose employers will start becoming subject to Obamacare's mandates in 2015. The Iowa Insurance Division will review Wellmark's request to allow the policy extensions, spokesman Tom Alger said.